Chapter 14: Show Me Your Navy
Old Ruins - Mystery Island
Groudon and the rest of the guild (except for Chimecho) were inside the courtyard of the Old Ruins. The skies overhead were crystal clear. In front of them was a massive grey stone ziggurat. Steps cut into the face of the pyramid led to the top, which appeared to be some sort of open air altar. Vines and assorted plants grew all over the temple.
Two weathered statues of Arceus and Altered Forme Giratina flanked the stone steps. Flecks of paint on the statues indicated that they had once been painted their true to life colors. Now the statues were a bland off-white color, marred by occasional streaks of grey, black and green where mildew and moss grew. Worshippers flocking to this temple would have been greeted by the emerald gaze of the Creator of All and the ruby eyes of the Guardian of the Dead. But thieves had long since stolen the precious jewels, leaving nothing behind but four empty holes in the statues.
Around the courtyard were the ruins of the stone walls, overgrown with jungle vines.
"All right, we'll split up. Querc, Loudred, Sunflora, Breaker you come with Guildmaster and myself to explore the courtyard. Groudon, Kyogre, Corphish, Bidoof and Matilda will explore the interior of the temple. Get to it!" Chatot ordered.
Groudon nodded and stood by the stone stairs to the temple. He adjusted the pecha scarf that was around his neck. Team KyGrou's treasure bag was dangling from his shoulder. Both he and Kyogre had shrunken themselves down to about five feet and six inches tall to make exploration easier.
"Everyone ready?" Kyogre asked. A grey defense scarf was around her neck and a pink special band was tied around the base of her tailfin. She no longer wore the blue silk as she realized that it still powered up her water attacks even if it was in her bag.
"Yup! Yup!" Bidoof said.
"Hey! Hey! We came to explore, not to chat!" Corphish said. He was wearing something that can best be described as a canvas bandolier. In it were several silver rods. A defense scarf was tied around his middle head-spike.
Matilda, a slightly overweight and elderly Kanghaskan, nodded. "I've got the tools," she said. Her pouch carried a small hammer, a brush and a pry bar.
"Is she part of our guild?" Kyogre whispered.
"No, she's a local we hired to assist us," Corphish replied.
Groudon said nothing as he donned a set of sunglasses and grinned. "Well, let's rock," he said. His body tingled with excitement.
"Is that a set of x-ray specs?"
Groudon nodded. "Yep, picked them up on the way here," he replied. He smirked as he realized that he now had access to a heads-up display.
No one decided to ask him exactly where he had picked them up.
"Lead the way," Bidoof said.
Groudon nodded and climbed up the steps to the altar at the top with the others behind him.
After a few minutes, they arrived at the altar. The altar at the top was overgrown with jungle vines. Several intricate but weathered carvings could be seen on the remnants of the stone altar. The group had climbed up the south entrance. To the north was an opening that overlooked the massive jungle. To the east and west were two vine curtains.
Matilda was ripping away some of the vines that covered the altar's ruins. To her disappointment, the jewels that once decorated the altar had long since been stolen. She kicked a small piece of rubble off the top. After a few seconds, there was a dull thud and the sound of Breaker screaming profanities at the top of his lungs.
"Nothing," Corphish replied bitterly. He had cut down the west vine curtain only to reveal a blank wall.
Groudon scanned the area. To his surprise, his heads-up display displayed a targeting reticule on the east vines. The words "space detected" appeared in green letters superimposed over the vines. "There's an entrance behind those vines!" he exclaimed pointing to the vine curtain.
"Well, wait are you waiting for? Cut down those vines and let's go!" Matilda shouted.
Corphish's claws glowed white. "Well, let's see how well they stand up to my Guillotine attack!" he said.
"No, no, no. I'll handle this," Groudon said, holding Corphish back. "Go Fire Blast!"
Everyone stood back as Groudon opened his mouth and spat a cruciform fireball at the vines. In seconds, the vines burst into flame and were reduced to a pile of cinders, revealing a dark entrance.
"Well, here we go. Anybody know Flash or got a luminous orb?" Bidoof asked.
"How about we use this?" Matilda suggested, taking a torch off the wall and lighting it off the burning remains of the vines. In seconds, the torch flared to life with a vivid blue flame.
"That works too."
The group then headed deeper into the temple.
In the courtyard, Querc and Breaker were examining another stone altar near the rear of the temple.
Breaker rubbed his head where the piece of rubble had struck him. "Ugh, no treasure," he groaned.
Querc said nothing but drew a six inch silver blade from a waist sheath. To Breaker, the blade would have been a medium sized knife but to Querc, it was decent sized sword.
He glanced at the hilt of the sword. It was deeply engraved with swirls that coiled up to its hand guard. His gaze shifted up to the blade. It was stamped with a stylized Skarmory tail, showing that it was made from authentic shed Skarmory feathers by the artisans (who incidentally were Skarmory) of Kalin. Knives and swords made from Skarmory feathers were prized for their natural rust resistance and ability to hold a razor sharp edge.
He had been given the sword as a reward for a mission he had completed with Breaker and has since carried it with him. Breaker's own reward – a three foot version of Querc's sword – was inside a room at Kangaskhan Storage.
"Hey Querc! You gonna help me cut away the vines or are you going to stare at your sword!" Breaker shouted. He was busy ripping out some vines that covered the stone altar.
Querc walked over to Breaker and started hacking away at the vines. The finely honed steel blade easily cut through the tough jungle vines, revealing the intricate engravings on the altar.
Groudon's group was now exploring the inner areas of the temple. They were now inside what seemed to be an area for receiving worshippers. Several stone benches lay scattered in pieces all over the ground. Tattered cloth banners hung from the wall. Several statues smashed beyond recognition lined the hall. The smell of mildew hung in the air. A stone altar was at the front of the room. It too had been smashed to rubble. Several sconces with burnt out torches lined the wall.
As soon as they entered, Matilda took a minute to light the torches.
"Well, let's look for treasure!" Matilda said excitedly.
"Let's see if there's anything worth finding here, first," Groudon said. He scanned over the room. To his surprise, several blue dots played over the various rubble piles. "Yep, there's items buried under that rubble," he said.
"Seems those x-ray specs of yours are more than just a stupid fashion accessory," Kyogre said with a grin. She had to admit Groudon did look rather, well, cool wearing those.
Groudon paid no heed to Kyogre's comment.
Matilda, Corphish and Bidoof whooped excitedly.
"Matilda, Kyogre, check the rubble pile in front of the room. Corphish, check the rubble pile by the west entrance-" Groudon noticed another entrance behind a large mass of rubble. "I'll go check the entrance behind the altar."
The pokémon dispersed to their assigned locations.
25,000 feet over the Isshu Sea
The Origin Fighter soared through the clear skies at a leisurely pace of Mach 1.3. Despite the fact that the Origin Fighter's powerful antigravity engines could propel it to a top speed of about Mach 3.5, Zero decided to conserve fuel. Speaking of him, he was currently scanning the blue seas for any sign of his destination.
Zero suddenly noticed that he was approaching a large island. He looked at his holographic map. He was apparently somewhere between Hoenn and Unova. Suddenly, the map faded and was replaced by Temeraire's avatar.
"Temeraire, what is the meaning of this?" Zero demanded.
"Sorry Captain, but I can no longer receive real time data from satellites nor communications. I will upload a map that has been extrapolated from the most recent data," Temeraire replied.
The AI's avatar faded and was replaced by the new map.
The craft flew over the island, revealing mostly jungles and plains with the occasional small village and ruins.
"Nothing worth looking at this little island," he muttered.
Zero suddenly noticed a large metropolis in the distance. Strangely, it was surrounded by dark clouds even though the rest of the island was sunny. "Or is there?" he said with a smirk.
He set a course for it.
In the process, he flew right over the Old Ruins at supersonic speeds.
A sonic boom ripped through the air at the Old Ruins.
"What was that?" Querc asked. He had sheathed his blade and was now helping Breaker carry the only legible engraving that they had found underneath the vines.
"Probably a Dragonite flyover," Breaker replied.
When the Origin Fighter was within a few hundred meters of the city, the skies turned dark and rain lashed his craft. It was raining so hard, that visibility was down to nearly zero.
"Temeraire! Starlight cameras on!" Zero barked.
A monitor to Zero's left blinked to life. The grainy black and white picture showed streets packed with several figures. Several factories in the distance belched black smoke into the sky. Several tacky neon signs on the dingy buildings advertised all sorts of wares.
"Switching to autopilot. Temeraire, prepare for a landing on the city outskirts," Zero ordered.
"As you wish," Temeraire replied.
Let's see what this city's all about. Zero thought as the craft continued on its path.
After a few minutes, he arrived at the outskirts of the city, which was home to several warehouses and other industrial buildings. There, directly below him was an abandoned lot, overgrown with weeds. Several rusted pieces of unidentifiable machinery were scattered throughout the plot.
Tenebrae City - Mystery Island
Outside, the Origin Fighter circled and slowed down as Temeraire powered down the main antigravity engines and extended the landing struts, letting gravity and air resistance guide the craft to a gentle landing.
As the craft landed, the whine of its engines steadily died as they shut down. Of course, since restarting the palladium-hydrogen fusion reactor required a large jolt from an external power source, Temeraire made sure to keep the reactor on standby mode. There, it produced enough just enough power to keep the AI and life support systems active.
The hatch on the top of the craft opened with a clank as Zero stepped out into the dingy air. He glanced around; all he saw were several dingy industrial buildings. He adjusted his belt, which he had made sure to put on before exiting the aircraft. In the belt was a Veekun Arms Thunderwave stun pistol on the left holster. His right holster carried a Veekun Arms Close Combat .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol. He had not bothered to take off his flight helmet but he did remove his oxygen mask.
"All right, now to examine the surroundings," he muttered as he climbed down the ladder. His boots sloshed through the puddles of rainwater left on the lot.
The ground view was no less interesting; it was still the same dingy lot he saw from the air. He looked around and found a rusted gate near him. He quickly made his way to the gate and found it unlocked. He quickly opened the gate and stepped out onto the street.
The street was no less dingy than the lot. Grey concrete buildings with dilapidated signs and steel shutters lined the street. Several buildings appeared to be abandoned with signs completely gone and doors and windows covered with large planks of wood. A grey haze of fog and rain blanketed the entire area. The sickly orange-yellow glow of sodium streetlights did little to improve the atmosphere.
This makes the Fuego Ironworks look nice. Zero thought as he looked around for signs of life. Granted, the driving rain probably drove them indoors.
As he was walking around the industrial area, he bumped into a metal sign. When he managed to read its words (not an easy task for the sign was severely faded and covered in graffiti), he finally found out where he was.
He was in Lanthae – the industrial section of Tenebrae City.
"Temeraire, this is Captain Nuell, do you copy?" he said into his headset radio.
"This is Temeraire. I copy," Temeraire replied via radio.
"Do you have information on Tenebrae City?"
"Negative. Temeraire out."
Zero swore and hit the metal sign with his gloved fist. He was going to have to explore this city himself.
He turned around and bumped into someone.
"Sorry about that. I guess I shouldn't have standing so close," the stranger said, picking itself off the wet ground and dusting off its coat.
Zero looked at the stranger. Its head was covered by a hood. About the only thing that he knew was that the stranger was a male but at a little over a foot and a half, there was no way it was a human.
"It's okay," Zero said. He was trying his hardest not to let fear creep into his voice but he kept his hand near his pistol.
"You look lost," the stranger said. "May I help you?"
"Sure."
A gust of wind picked up and blew the mysterious stranger's hood back and revealed who he was.
Zero swore that he heard the low whine of electric motors emanating from the stranger as he reached over to put his hood back on but not before Zero got a good look at his face. He was a normal-looking Sableye with dark purple skin and with gemstone eyes – save for his right eye, which was a mechanical implant. The implant's polished silver parts and glowing red pupil stood out in stark contrast to the rest of his face.
Zero's eyes widened in shock and his jaw dropped – not that it was visible behind his mirrored visor. He had seen talking pokémon before but he could count those times on one hand. And a cybernetic pokémon? That was news to him.
"You planning on staying in Lanthae or do you wanna see Tenebrae City's nicer side?" the Sableye asked.
"Sorry, I got distracted," Zero replied.
He then followed the Sableye through the desolate streets. In the distance, he could see the neon lights of the main city.
After walking through the rain drenched streets of Lanthae, they arrived at the Silica district of Tenebrae City.
Zero looked around in amazement. Around him were towering skyscrapers covered in neon signs and electronic billboards that advertised everything from food to cybernetics. Despite it being billed as Tenebrae City's nicer side, the Silica district seemed to be just as seedy as Lanthae. The faceless mass of people swarmed around him. Most of them were wearing sunglasses – despite the rainy weather. And most of them were dressed in long black trench coats. Zero sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose; the whole area had that distinct "industrial city" funk about it.
He stepped back only to bump into someone else. "Hey watch where you're going!" the stranger snapped.
"Sorry," Zero muttered. He did a double take as he got a good look at the stranger he had bumped into; it was a Metagross.
What is this place? Zero thought. His thoughts were interrupted by the Sableye tugging at the sleeve of his flight suit.
"Excuse me, I never got your name," he said.
"Zero," Zero replied.
"Pleased to meet you, I'm Monazite."
"Nice to meet you," Zero replied. His stomach growled. "Uh, you know any place I can get some food?"
Monazite's cybernetic eye flashed. "Of course! Follow me!" he said.
Zero then followed Monazite as he darted through the crowded streets. He had nearly lost sight of his Sableye guide several times but he eventually made his way to a warehouse-like building in a dark alley. A battered neon sign flickered above the entrance. Zero's heart sped up as he kept his hand near his pistol. He did not like the atmosphere of the alley.
Monazite opened the door and stepped in. He gestured for Zero to follow.
When he did so, his ears were immediately assaulted with the pounding bass of a high energy techno track. As soon as he recovered from the shock, he glanced around.
The nightclub was lit by the pale blue light of LEDs set high on the ceiling. Fog – courtesy of several Murkrow perched in the corners – revealed multi-colored laser beams lancing across the room and dancing in time to the music. The strobe lights mounted on the Magnezone DJ flashed blue, red and white in time to the music, painting the black walls and the patrons with light. All around him, assorted dark, electric, poison, steel and ghost type pokémon were dancing. And not a single human was to be seen. He decided it would be a bad idea to take off his helmet but his growling stomach made him realize that he cannot eat with the helmet on. Not to mention, he did not want to offend Monazite.
Zero then skirted around the mass of dancers and sat on a stool next to Monazite, who was at the counter. "Nice place," he said.
Monazite was sipping a glass of some vividly glowing blue liquid. "Yeah. Club Giaru's got the best music. And they have great noodles too," he said.
Zero nodded and looked at the menu. It was, surprisingly, understandable to him.
"Excuse me," he said, waving to the cashier.
The cashier in question was an Ampharos in a frilly apron but she had four mechanical arms and a visor with a single scrolling red eye where her eyes would normally be. An antenna protruded from the left side of her visor. One of her arms extended at least three feet to pick up the tip that a customer had left, another arm handed a bottle of beer to Monazite and her two remaining arms were operating the cash register.
"One moment," she said as her arms retracted with a metallic clicking sound not unlike the sound of Origin Fighter's fueling line retracting.
Zero inwardly shuddered. The four armed cyber-Ampharos seriously disturbed him – especially the unblinking cyber-eye. But at least she seemed friendly.
"How may I help you?" she said pleasantly.
Zero flinched; her pleasant tone seemed to make her appearance even more frightening. "Erm, I'll have the fish ball noodles," he said.
"Good choice," Monazite said.
The Ampharos nodded. Zero figured out that his order had been sent via the antenna on the cashier's head.
"It will be a moment," the Ampharos replied. As she walked away to talk to another patron, one of her right arms extended and picked up the empty beer bottle from Monazite.
Zero sighed. This was going to be a rough night. He decided to let the pounding techno distract him from his thoughts.
Hikokyu II -40,000 feet above Sinnoh
Inside the Hikokyu II's hold,Charon was sitting on a crate. The crate in question used to hold 20 mm autocannon shells but it was now empty and served as a seat.
Shaymin was smoking a cigarette while Jirachi and Mew had decided to repeatedly poke Darkrai, much to his displeasure. Dialga had an unlit cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth.
"Jirachi! You're so immature! And Mew! Act your age!" Darkrai shouted as he knocked the two away with a weak Dark Pulse.
"Aww, you're no fun!" Jirachi replied as he floated over to Dialga and reclined on his back.
"JIRACHI! I AM NOT A RECLINER!" Dialga said.
Mew quickly recovered from the attack and joined Jirachi on Dialga's back. Dialga sighed and tried his best to ignore them. At least a catalog from Silph Co. kept him occupied.
"At least Lugia's not here," Jirachi muttered.
Mew, understanding what Jirachi was talking about, started laughing. "Yeah, I don't think they have his, erm… medical supplies," he said, giving a quick glance to Arceus, who was looking at the two. She then resumed cuddling with Giratina.
"Speaking of not here? Where's the Lake Trio and Deoxys?" Cresselia asked, looking up from her old issue of Alamos Town Weekly that Charon had procured.
No one could answer the question.
"I can explain," Charon cut in. "They were transferred to another holding cell."
"Why?" Ho-oh asked.
"That is classified but rest assured that they will be well treated."
"Listen shitface, tell us where they are or I will Seed Flare your ass!" Shaymin snarled.
Charon shrugged. "I don't know where they are. But if you want to Seed Flare me, go ahead. The energy shield will protect me but I doubt the others with you will be as lucky," he replied. His face showed no sign of anger as he spoke. His features suddenly softened. "Now that we've got that taken care of, let's just chat," he said.
Latios was reading some old issues of Champion that Charon had given him. He was enamored by the beauty of Sinnoh champion Cynthia and former Elite Four member Karen. A slight blush crept across his face.
Suicune, Raikou and Entei were arguing over the appropriateness of accepting favors from Charon. Ho-oh, Celebi and Manaphy were asleep. Regigigas, Deoxys and Heatran were making small talk.
In a corner of the cell, the Legendary Birds, Latias, Registeel, Regirock, Regice were swapping "war stories" about the times they fought in the Battle Frontier. Surprisingly, they were amiable to taking commands from the trainers and they obeyed them like any trained pokémon, despite being gods.
"So out of curiosity, what was the dirtiest trick you've ever had used against you in the Battle Frontier?" Latias asked. She took a draw from the cigarette she was smoking. Her brother never let her smoke, claiming that she was "too young" to do so. Granted, the tobacco had no effect on her; she did it just to look "cool".
"Well, this one time in the Battle Pyramid, Brandon had me use Hyper Beam on a Sceptile… and that bastard took cover behind the referee!" Regirock said. "I'm surprised they just didn't DQ him right there."
"I once battled a perverted Milotic in the Battle Tower. She did everything possible to creep me out. Needless to say, my trainer was just as grossed out as I was so we didn't win," Articuno said. She shuddered as she recalled some of the vulgar things the Milotic said.
"Eww," Latias said. She ground out her cigarette on the steel floor of the cell. "I once had a Hitmonchan spit in my face then sucker punch me with an Ice Punch."
"I once fought a Zangoose who repeatedly went for groin attacks," Registeel said.
Everyone stared at him.
"Do you even have…" Articuno trailed off, not wanting to finish her question. Her ice blue feathers did a pretty good job of masking the blush on her face.
"Um, anyways, how about we talk about what we liked about our Battle Frontier trainers?" Latias said. Her face was almost as red as the markings on her body; she never expected Articuno to ask something so personal. "Um, Mira is my current trainer in the Battle Tower and I like the way she battles. And her pink hair. And her personality. And her cooking. She makes the best apple Torterra."
Everyone noticed that Latias seemed to have a dreamy look in her eyes and she was grinning idiotically.
"Oh boy. I can just see the hearts floating around her head," Regice said.
Zapdos and Moltres were sniggering like crazy. "Latias has a crush on Mira!" Zapdos said between laughs.
"I…I… do not!" Latias snapped. But her red face and stuttering said it all.
The entire group burst out laughing, leaving poor Latias even redder than before.
"So this is a Jirarudan class airship?" Mewtwo said. He had to admit, despite being captured and held hostage, it was quite a rare privilege to see one of these airships up close. He then looked around the hold and spotted all the priceless treasures. "Care to tell me about those treasures?" he asked. He paid no heed to the group in the corner.
Charon nodded. "Yes, one of the only six ever made," he said. "As for the treasures, no. I don't know anything about them."
"So what happened to the other five?" Latios asked, glancing up from his magazine.
"The first one – owned by Lawrence III – was lost on Shamouti Island. The second one is sitting in the Mossdeep Air and Space Museum. That airship was formerly owned by the Silph Co. Air Corps. The third one is, well, the one we're in. The others were scrapped after the operation and repair costs became prohibitive. Their successor is the Kecleon class airship," Mewtwo replied.
Suddenly, Rayquaza, who had been listening in, spoke up. "Incorrect. The Kecleon class airship is not related to the Jirarudan class at all. The successor to the Jirarudan class is the Gablias class – currently in use by the Sinnoh Air Force," he said.
"Impressive," Charon said. "Rayquaza, Mewtwo, you certainly know your aviation."
"Well, after hanging around Mossdeep Space Center and the Air and Space Museum so long, you'd expect me to pick up a few things," Rayquaza replied with a toothy grin.
Suddenly, Charon's headset radio beeped. "Ah, sorry, I've got to work my shift in the fusion reactor's control room," he said.
Charon then flicked off the lights and walked over to the elevator. In a few seconds, he stepped inside and the elevator whisked him away to the ship's reactor silo.
"Well, now what?" Mewtwo asked.
"Well, we wait for rescue or something," Heatran replied. He too was smoking a cigarette.
"Like that's going to happen," Shaymin replied morosely, blowing some smoke in the air.
Everyone looked at the energized bars at the front of the cell and sighed.\
Charon made his way through the sterile stainless steel halls of the ship on his way to the reactor silo. The halls were well lit with banks of cool blue-white LEDs mounted in the ceiling. Several other grunts carrying assorted tools passed by him. He figured that they were headed to one of the three hangars to work on the ship's fleet of hover skiffs.
He finally made his way to a heavy steel door that was labeled with three signs. A keycard reader was next to the door. The top sign read: "Reactor silo". The one below that read "DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE!" The last sign read "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY!"
He swiped his ID card and was rewarded with the thunk of the electronic lock disengaging. He pushed open the door and stepped through.
In front of Charon was the ship's main power source: a five gigawatt palladium-hydrogen reactor. The reactor in question was a roughly oblong steel capsule standing roughly fifty feet tall with a circumference of about ten feet. Cables and pipes of all sizes protruded from the reactor. A good portion of the circumference was radiation shielding. A protective cage surrounded the entire assembly. A transformer half the size of the reactor took up the entire rear wall. Unlike the larger reactors that powered cities, there were no moving parts; instead, the heat and neutrons emitted from the fusion reaction were converted directly to electricity by an array of high-purity synthetic thunderstones. While this system had a conversion efficiency of upwards of seventy five percent, it was tremendously expensive, accounting for over half the ship's cost. Not to mention the system was very maintenance intensive as the relentless neutron bombardment eventually destroyed the thunderstones by rendering them so brittle that the movement of the airship or their own weight would break them. As a result the array had to be totally replaced every three months. Thankfully, the miracle of poké ball technology had allowed spare arrays to be carried onboard the ship and there was a built in gantry to assist in the process but the undertaking was still an arduous process, requiring the reactor to be shut down.
Charon ignored the nearly deafening rumble of the massive pumps feeding the reactor and circulating the reactor coolant as he made his way to the control room overlooking the silo. The deep buzz of energized high voltage switchgear added to the industrial cacophony.
He opened the door and relieved the woman on duty. She was wearing the same jumpsuit that the other Galactic grunts wore but it had a patch with stylized nucleus on it, indicated that she was trained to monitor fusion reactors.
He shut the door, drenching the room in quiet and sat in the surprisingly comfortable chair. He took a deep breath as he faced the console with its imposing array of dials, switches and monitors.
"Hmm. Converter temperature is in the safe zone. Hydrogen consumption rate is normal. Magnet temperature is in acceptable parameters. Thunderstone converter structural integrity acceptable," he muttered to himself as he wrote down the statistics in the logbook.
Northern Lilycove City - Hoenn
The refugees from Altomare landed at the northern part of Lilycove City. The area was very clean with benches for enjoying the sea breeze. Several stores were located on the waterfront but they were not open yet. The golden rays of the early morning sun bathed the area.
"Well, this is a nice place to kill an hour," James said as he dismounted the hover skiff.
Palkia shut the skiff off and dismounted.
Johnny Mac and Garchomp dismounted Lugia and sat on one of the benches.
Lugia shrank back to his "interaction size" and removed the luxury ball that contained Cynthia. He then tossed it on the ground and the Sinnoh champion reemerged in a flash of blue light.
"So was your ball trip?" Garchomp asked.
"Good. Except why was I in the middle of a large town populated only by pokémon and called Pokémon Square?" Cynthia asked.
No one could answer that question.
After several awkward seconds, James deployed Quartzon, Wukong and Ferrum. "Palkia, translation field," he said.
Palkia's eyes flashed blue for a moment. "Cynthia, Johnny Mac, you can now understand pokémon as long as you are within several hundred meters of myself or Lugia," he said.
"Speaking of which, we should probably all introduce ourselves," Lugia said. "I'm Lugia."
"I am Palkia," Palkia said.
"And I'm Cynthia Shirona. And this is my companion, Garchomp," Cynthia said, gesturing to Garchomp.
Garchomp said nothing but doffed her fedora.
"I am Johnny Mac of Black Yin, White Yang and these are my fellow band members, Zekrom and Reshiram," Johnny Mac said, gesturing to the two pokémon behind him. The
two waved. "Oh, they only speak Isshuese," he added.
James and his pokémon were the last to introduce themselves. "Now that we got that taken care of, what do we do now?" Quartzon asked.
"How about a pokémon battle?" Wukong said, throwing a few punches into the air.
James looked around and spotted a designated battling area nearby. "Sure!" he said.
"I'll be your opponent!" Cynthia said.
The entire group rushed over to the arena. Reshiram, Zekrom and Johnny Mac took the front row while Lugia, as usual, took the referee's stand. James and Cynthia took the trainer's boxes. Palkia was the last to leave as he had to wait for everyone to clear away, lest the jet wash from his hover skiff injure them. When everyone left, he hopped onto his skiff and started the engine.
"This is a one on one battle between Trainer James Elison and Champion Cynthia Shirona," Lugia announced. "Contestants begin!"
"Garchomp! I choose you!" Cynthia cried.
Garchomp stepped onto the rectangular dirt arena. She was wearing her trademark fedora and had her whip. "This should be fun," she said with a smirk.
"Palkia! Go!" James shouted.
Palkia stepped – or rather rode his hover skiff – into the rectangular arena. His body tingled with the anticipation of battle. Granted, it did feel slightly odd being ordered around by James but he did not really care.
"Hold it!" Lugia shouted. "Garchomp! A whip is not a legal held item. Get rid of that this instant! And Palkia! Get off that hover skiff!"
Palkia rode the skiff outside the arena bounds, shut it off and walked back to the arena. Garchomp took off her whip and hat and tossed them to Cynthia.
"This battle will now begin!" Lugia shouted.
"Garchomp! Hit him with Dragon Rush!" Cynthia shouted.
Garchomp nodded as her body began to glow blue.
"Dodge and counter with Aura Sphere!" James ordered.
A pink orb began to form in Palkia's hand as he charged up his attack. "Closer, closer," he muttered to himself as the speeding blue bullet that was Garchomp came closer.
At seemingly the last moment, Palkia leapt out of the way and flung the glowing pink orb at Garchomp.
"Dig then use Dragon Rush!" Cynthia cried.
Garchomp dove into the ground, the pink orb narrowly missing her head as it struck the energy shields and was harmlessly dissipated.
"Hey coward! Come out and fight me!" Palkia shouted. He glanced around for Garchomp.
Palkia noticed the ground starting to crack beneath him. He leapt back as a glowing blue dart soared into the sky. "Missed!" he mocked. "Looks like you could use some more practice!"
"Garchomp, Flamethrower," Cynthia commanded.
"Protect," James said.
A green sphere surrounded Palkia, harmlessly dissipating the intense flames. He obnoxiously wagged his middle finger at Garchomp.
Ferrum looked with admiration at Palkia. "He's good," he said. He was munching on a Magikarp he snatched from the water.
"I do not exactly approve of his antics in a pokémon battle," Wukong said, watching Palkia give Garchomp the finger. "Though I must say, he is a good fighter."
"I do," Ferrum replied. Palkia had now switched to moving his cupped hand back and forth in front of his face. And his Protect still held up perfectly against Garchomp's Flamethrower and the standoff had been going on for several seconds now.
"Well, you're entitled to your own opinion."
Ferrum was rather infamous for trash-talking, cursing, gloating – in general, being a bad sport.
Garchomp took a deep breath as she stopped using Flamethrower, her lungs and body ached for lack of air.
Palkia's Protect finally shattered under the abuse it took. "Had enough?" he asked.
"No!" Garchomp countered. She spat on the ground.
"Palkia! Spacial Sword!" James shouted.
Palkia made the motion of drawing a sword from an invisible sheath around his waist. Instantaneously, a three and a half foot pink energy sword flared to life in his right hand. "En garde!" he shouted, lunging at Garchomp.
"Garchomp dodge and use Draco Meteor!" Cynthia shouted.
Garchomp dove out of the way and rolled to her feet as an orange energy ball appeared between her two hand-claws. She loved Draco Meteor; not only was it really flashy, it hit really hard too. "Go Draco Meteor!" she cried, throwing her arms to her sides as the energy ball shot into the sky and detonated, causing glowing orange darts of light to streak across the sky and bombard the battlefield. She did not need to shout out the attack name but she figured out that since her trainer did it, she might as well do it too.
"Oh shit," Palkia muttered as the darts began to rain around him like artillery fire. He tried to dodge them but the shockwave from the explosions threw his balance off.
"Palkia! See if you can hit them back at her!" James shouted.
Palkia nodded as he swung his sword at a dart hurtling right towards him. It ricocheted off the sword and hurtled towards Cynthia, who instinctively dove out of the way. A wise move, seeing as each dart packed the same explosive force as a hand grenade and she would have most certainly been killed if it struck her. Luckily, Cynthia was protected by the energy shield installed in the battle arena
Palkia continued charging through the battlefield as the darts detonated around him, marking the arena with craters and kicking up large dirt plumes. He used his sword to swat aside most of the projectiles but one of them struck his sword arm, dissipating the energy sword. Another dart struck him in the back, knocking him to the ground.
"Palkia! Get up!" James shouted. Palkia did not respond except for a feeble attempt to push himself back to his feet.
"Finish this, Dragon Rush!" Cynthia shouted.
Garchomp leapt into the air and surrounded herself with a blue glow. She was quite happy, maybe even a little overconfident as she prepared to triumph over the Master of Space himself.
By now, some other people and pokémon had joined to watch the battle. The spectators in the stands were at the edge of their seats. The tension in the air was palpable.
Palkia lay in the ground in considerable pain from being bombarded by several Draco Meteor projectiles. Through his haze of pain, he saw a blur of blue coming towards him.
He made the motion of summoning his spacial sword and held the glowing blade in front of himself as the blue blur came closer.
There was a flash of brilliant blue light and an explosion as Garchomp collided with Palkia's blade.
When the dust cleared, Garchomp lay on the ground, unconscious and Palkia was hunched over on the dirt. He was covered in soot and his entire body ached.
"Garchomp is unable to battle! Palkia is the winner!" Lugia shouted, raising his left wing.
The crowd cheered.
Cynthia went into the arena and waited until Garchomp regained consciousness.
"That…was great," Garchomp said with a smile. "I haven't battled that hard since we faced Paul. Too bad Lucario, Spiritomb, Gastrodon and Roserade aren't here."
She then stood up and tried to take a few steps, but she ended up falling down. "Erm, could you please carry me?" she asked with a blush.
"Of course, dear," Cynthia replied. She then scooped up Garchomp in her arms and carried her to the spectator area.
Everyone present stared as Cynthia picked up her two hundred plus pound Garchomp like she weighed nothing.
Palkia staggered out of the area. "Potion," he said.
Wukong tossed him a hyper potion, which he proceeded to spray all over himself. In seconds he felt like new again.
A few seconds later, Garchomp, good as new, courtesy of an application of full restore (a life supply came free with the position of elite four or league champion), went up to Palkia and shook his hand.
"I must admit, that last maneuver was pretty clever. You knew that I can't really change directions too well when using Dragon Rush so you waited until I got close then you drew your sword, causing me to run into the sword," Garchomp said. She had her fedora back but decided to forgo the whip.
"Well, I admit it was a desperation tactic," Palkia said.
"In any case, good battle."
James and Cynthia also shook hands as well. Johnny Mac, Wukong, Quartzon, Ferrum, Reshiram and Zekrom came down from the stands and went up to the combatants.
"Nice battling," Wukong said. "But one thing, I want to mention. You said some very disrespectful things to Garchomp and her trainer. Please don't do that the next time you battle, it is bad sportsmanship"
Palkia flinched. He had to admit, he said some pretty crass things about the two. Not to mention all the rude gestures he made. But he did have to admit, the other spectators seemed to love his trash-talk.
Johnny Mac went up to the group. "Reshiram and Zekrom want to explore a bit," he said. "And Palkia, nice battling!"
James nodded as Reshiram and Zekrom walked towards the city's main street
By now, the sun was up and the waterfront stores were starting to open. Palkia's eyes gleamed as he spotted a Zodiac Motors store near him. "Be right back, I've got some shopping to do," he said, grabbing his messenger bag.
Garchomp and Cynthia were sitting on a bench and they were simply chatting. Ferrum and Lugia decided to stretch their wings and fly around while Wukong and Quartzon chatted.
A few minutes later, Palkia returned with a large plastic bag over his shoulder.
"What did you buy?" Lugia asked, landing next to him.
Palkia pulled what looked like a giant extension cord. "A charging cable for the hover skiff and a racing suit for myself. And a skiff lock," he said. He then put the charger back in and pulled out the racing suit. The suit in question was one piece fire retardant coverall for hover skiff racers. It bore an obnoxious pink and white color scheme.
"Ugh, that's hideous."
"Hey! It's a near exact replica of the suit I wore in the Orange Island Invitational! Which I won."
He then shoved the plastic bag into his messenger bag.
Johnny Mac was sitting on a bench and soaking in the sea breeze when Garchomp took a seat next to him.
"Hey, Mac, you never showed us your pokémon?" she asked.
Johnny Mac sighed. "I don't have any," he said.
"With you?"
"No. None at all."
Garchomp scratched her head. After all, nearly everyone owned a pokémon. "Why's that?" she asked.
"I'm banned from ever owning them," he replied sadly.
"Why?"
"It's some stupid law in Unova. If you have strong psychic abilities you cannot legally own pokémon," he replied. "But I kind of substituted with guns. But they're a poor substitute. I would gladly trade my prized Veekun Arms 151 shotgun for a chance to legally own even a Bidoof in Unova."
Garchomp shook her head. While Unova was famed for its technological innovation, it was reviled as a place where old prejudices were overlooked, if not encouraged by law.
"Hey, how's about we go over to Pier 21, Pier 25 and Pier 27? They've got a navy exhibit!" Lugia said as he looked at an advertisement posted on the wall.
"Why not? It'll give us something to do," Cynthia said, getting to her feet.
"To the piers!" Palkia exclaimed, hopping on his hover skiff and starting the engine. The skiff rose about seventy feet in the air. It was then that Palkia noticed that he was not the only skiff rider. He narrowly avoided getting plowed over by a man riding a "Dragonite" skiff carrying some groceries. The streets in the city now had a fair number of cars on them.
Cynthia recalled Garchomp and put her ball back in her pocket. James did the same, recalling his three pokémon.
Lugia grew to full size and Cynthia, Johnny Mac and James mounted him. He then took to the air and followed Palkia.
As they flew over the city, James swore that Cynthia had turned the same unpleasant green shade as a Gulpin.
When they finally arrived at Pier 21, they were greeted by a throng of people. As soon as Lugia landed, Cynthia leapt from his back with a hand over her mouth and ran to the edge of the pier as fast as possible, not caring who was in her way.
"Hey, one of you better check on Cynthia," Palkia said, dismounting his skiff, shutting it off and locking it to a rack just outside the entrance for the naval exhibition.
"I'll do it," James said. He then made his way through the crowd to where Cynthia was hunched over the railing.
"Cynthia, you okay?" he asked.
The only response was a gagging sound as Cynthia vomited up what little was in her stomach.
Several more seconds passed as Cynthia took several deep breaths. She tried to quell the wave of nausea that swept her body like the waves striking the dock pilings. She dry-heaved several times before she was able to speak.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, spitting over the railing several times. "Just get me something to rinse my mouth out and let me sit down."
James carefully escorted her to a bench just outside the entrance. "Come in when you're ready," he said.
"Well, we came this far, let's see the ships," Lugia said. He and Palkia stood in line to be admitted. James got behind them.
"We'll meet you at the nearby Harbor Café," Johnny Mac said. He headed over to the aforementioned café, which true to its name, overlooked the ocean.
Due to fact that active navy ships were present, security was very tight. People were searched before they were permitted into the exhibition. Police officers decked out in body armor and equipped with submachine guns and Growlithe patrolled the area. Several police Yanma flew overhead to keep an eye on things.
Lugia, Palkia and James made it through the checkpoint just fine but they had to leave their digital bags and pokémon with Johnny Mac and Cynthia. Reshiram and Zekrom were nowhere to be seen.
Palkia gazed in astonishment at the two ships in the harbor. One of them was a massive aircraft carrier and the other was a cruiser that was nearly as large. The distinguishing feature of the cruiser was a massive gun that protruded from middle of the ship and a bizarre design that looked like a cross between a stealth bomber, a racing boat and a warship. Both of the ships were decked out in the classic battleship grey paint job.
"Nice ships, whose are they?" James asked.
Palkia looked at his information guide. "Those are ships of the Unova Navy," he said. "The aircraft carrier is the Zorroark class aircraft carrier, UNV Sazandra and the cruiser is the Unova class gun cruiser UNV Shandara," he said. He suddenly got a brilliant gleam in his eyes. "And I have an idea", he quickly added with a grin.
"You're not going to do what I think you are going to do, are you?"
Palkia nodded. "Lugia, you board the UNV Sazandra and try to convince the captain to join us. I'll do the same to the UNV Shandara," he said.
"What about me?" James asked.
"Erm, stay here and wait for us. We shouldn't be long."
Lugia flew over to the queue to board the aircraft carrier just as Palkia teleported himself to the queue for the Shandara. Luckily, the queue moved very quickly and he was soon at the front of the line. He looked around the flight deck as soon as he was granted access. Around him were throngs of curious people looking at the assorted aircraft and machinery on the deck and several uniformed crewmembers answering their questions.
A placard next to him read "Welcome aboard the Sazandra".
Lugia rolled his eyes as he read the piece of paper that a tour guide gave him and returned it. He already knew everything about the Sazandra. It was 1,010 feet long and displaced 101,040 tons. It was powered by five palladium-hydrogen fusion reactors – each producing fifty two megawatts – made by Hiun Industrial driving four fifty megawatt superconducting electric motors which turned four propellers, each with a diameter of twenty seven feet. It was armed with three Kamex 20 mm CIWS systems and two RIM-453 Koaruhie short-range missile launchers – each mounting carried five missiles in a self contained box-shaped launch unit. All of which were designed to protect against anti-ship missiles, aircraft and surface threats. And it carried ninety aircraft.
He also knew some things that the general public was not supposed to know, such as its exact top speed (thirty seven knots), its countermeasures (SLQ-52R ROTOM countermeasures suite and SLQ-25R torpedo countermeasure suite), armor (2.5 inches of Kevlar and ceramic protecting the ship's vitals and a Trancell Electronics SVT-734M shield generator that guarded against pokémon attacks).
As he leaned against one of the mounts for the Koaruhie missiles and looked at the curious masses aboard the ship, a sailor went up to him.
"Are you Lugia?" the man asked.
"Yeah," Lugia replied.
"The captain wishes to speak to you."
Lugia shrugged. Being a Legendary had lots of perks and getting to meet the captain of a high tech navy ship was just one of them.
He then followed the man through the mass of people and entered through a door bore a temporary placard reading "No entry". A well lit stairwell was visible beyond the door's threshold.
"Follow me," the sailor said, stepping over the threshold and descending down the stairs.
Lugia, deciding that he could trust the man, followed him. He also kept in mind that if hostilities were shown, he could easily kill the attackers.
UNV Sazandra interior
After descending a well-lit stairwell, they found themselves inside one of the ship's hallways. The hallways were painted the same bland battleship grey as the outside and banks of LEDs in the ceilings illuminated everything in a harsh white light. The wires and pipes were not exposed but covered behind clearly labeled access panels. Several placards detailing everything from fire safety to forbidden activities were visible on the walls.
The halls were surprisingly empty, which surprised Lugia. At least, until he remembered that a fair number of men and women in uniform had been watching Palkia battle with Garchomp. He surmised that many of the sailors were probably enjoying themselves in Lilycove City.
After a few minutes of winding through the labyrinthine hallways of the ship, the duo arrived at one of the ship's meeting rooms
The two stepped over the threshold of the open door and found themselves in what could be described as the ugliest meeting room anyone had ever seen. The only piece of furniture was a large metal table that was bolted to the painted metal floor and several uncomfortable looking metal chairs that were chained to the table's legs.
The captain of the Sazandra sat at the head of the table. He was a thin but rather short Chinese man in his early to mid thirties and wearing the full dress uniform of a captain. "Welcome, Lugia," he said.
Lugia saluted the captain, who returned the salute. "Erm, sir may I have your name?" he asked.
"Very well. I am Jake Yarta. Captain of the Sazandra."
"Captain On, exactly why is my presence required?" Lugia asked.
"We know about the serious issue facing the Legendaries."
Lugia's jaw fell open in shock. "But…how?" he asked.
"Someone named Hunter K and her henchmen tried to capture Victini from his home. Luckily, the police managed to stop her before Victini came to harm. While Hunter K was killed by the police-"
"You should have taken her alive."
"Look, from what I heard, she had a poké ball containing an Electrode in her hand. A poké ball – especially one containing an Electrode – is a deadly weapon. Once she tried to throw it, they were forced to shoot her."
Lugia shrugged; he heard had that Isshuian police were more likely to resort to lethal force but then again, since Isshuian criminals were not averse about attacking police or their victims with pokémon or firearms it was understandable. And he learned from Mewtwo's lessons that Unova took quite a bit of its customs and laws from the United States. But the only lesson that stuck out in Lugia's mind was that the Isshuians had also copied the American 2nd amendment and firearms were common among the populace. Hell, on the ride over to Lilycove, he heard Johnny Mac brag about his fifty plus guns back at his house.
"In any case," Captain Yarta continued. "We did manage to extract information from some of her henchmen. They were hired by someone named Cyrus Akagi to assist in capturing all Legendaries from the regions."
Lugia's eyes narrowed; he now knew who was behind the attack on the Hall of Origin. And now, Cyrus was planning to take the war to Unova. "What assistance can you provide?" he asked
"Officially, not much as we do not have jurisdiction in Hoenn. However, unofficially, I will allow you to land and ride aboard the carrier. Not to mention we'll, of course, assist in defending the remaining Legendaries from capture."
"Thank you. Can you provide offensive support? Like if we need to destroy a Team Rocket base?" Lugia asked. Even though his fully charged Aeroblast had roughly the same destructive power as a Tomahawk cruise missile, it was a pokémon attack and could be blocked by a shield generator like the one on the Sazandra. Granted, his Aeroblast was strong enough to overload all but the most powerful shield generators. Regardless, he wanted some heavy artillery to back him up.
Captain Yarta frowned as he ran a hand through his short cropped black hair. "I think you are asking a little too much," he replied. "I don't think the Hoenn government will like our aircraft dropping bombs in their territory."
Lugia groaned. He was going to have to find his heavy artillery elsewhere. "Do you have any pokémon we can borrow?"
"There are no pokémon in any of Unova's armed forces," he replied. This was perfectly understandable as it was much cheaper and quicker to produce and equip soldiers with conventional weaponry. And there were the twin bonuses that conventional weapons were immune to status effects and did not require feeding and medical care.
"Okay, thank you Captain Yarta," Lugia said. He then turned around to exit.
"Oh, Lugia, before you go, I'd like you to meet my two right hand men," Captain Yarta said, gesturing to the two men dressed in ensign's uniforms flanking him. One of the men had blue-black hair in a buzz cut and the other had short cropped purple hair.
Lugia looked at them and nodded. "Pleased to meet you, I am Lugia," he said.
"I am Ensign Drake Cornova," the purple haired man said.
"I am Ensign Nikolas Adams," the other man said.
"Well, Captain Yarta, Ensign Cornova and Ensign Adams, I must be off and I hope we see each other again," Lugia said.
As he turned to leave, he saluted the three officers, who saluted him back.
Palkia sat down on a bench. He was eating a slice of pizza from a street vendor. He grimaced; the pizza he was eating was horrendous but he was so hungry. He paid little heed to the bustle of the crowd.
He was halfway through the slice when Lugia sat next to him. "So how did it go?" he asked between bites.
"Pretty good," Lugia replied. "Captain Jake Yarta of the Sazandra has agreed to help us. He said I can land on his ship but I'm not sure about you guys. Oh, and he'll help defend the remaining Legendaries. But he's not going to use his aircraft to attack Team Rocket bases."
Palkia swallowed his bite of pizza. "Captain Jacqueline Palazzoof theUNV Shandara doesn't want to help us. Luckily, Ensign Guy Ruog seems to be more willing." he said. He then took out his guidebook. "And that's the one with the huge eight inch railgun that can fling a one hundred plus pound projectile over two hundred miles at hypersonic velocities. Hopefully, Ensign Ruog can get Captain Palazzo to reconsider her decision."
At this point, Cynthia, carrying a bottle of water she purchased from the Harbor Café sat next to him. "So how are things going?" she asked.
"Not that interesting. Lugia got to meet and greet the captain of the UNV Sazandra. By the way, where's Garchomp?"
"She's eating lunch with Johnny Mac."
"Oh," Lugia added. "Someone named Cyrus Akagi is trying to capture the Legendaries."
That did it. Cynthia spat out her water in shock. Palkia clapped her on the back as she coughed.
"Him again!" she exclaimed between coughs.
Lugia was taken aback. "This is not his first time?" he asked.
Palkia shook his head. "A year ago, he used the Lake Trio to enslave myself and my brother and forced us to make him new universe but Cynthia and Ash Ketchum helped defeat him," he said. "And that was the last we saw of him."
"Well, in any case, he's back. And badder than ever and we've got to put a stop to him," Lugia said, slamming his fist into his palm.
Cynthia's grey eyes flashed with anger. "As the champion and Pokémon League representative of Sinnoh, I will bring him to justice."
"Luckily, we're not doing this alone. As Palkia said before, we're trying to recruit some navy ships to help us. So far, Captain Jake Yarta of the Sazandra is willing to help."
"And we've got other navy ships here. Maybe we can cobble together a navy and take him down. I'll check the Hoenn ships. Lugia, you check the Kanto ships," Palkia said, opening a portal, which he stepped through. Lugia took to the air.
James was reading a newspaper. The front page was occupied by an article about the destruction of Altomare. "Why does it feel like my life is going to turn into an action flick?" he said to no one in particular. He had overheard the entire conversation between the three.
Cynthia said nothing but leaned back on the bench and drank some water. She wondered how Garchomp and the other pokémon were doing with Johnny Mac.
Inside a café near Pier 21, Johnny Mac and the others' pokémon were eating lunch. The café was full of people ordering various drinks and fast food. The café was blandly decorated with potted plants throughout the café. The floor was a boring off-white tile design. Reproductions of Lugia's artwork hung on the walls, lending a slightly classy atmosphere.
Garchomp was eating some rice balls and Wukong was eating some fruit while the others were eating pokémon food.
Johnny Mac was eating a plate of sushi. He watched as Garchomp struggled with a packet of soy sauce. Both he, Garchomp and Wukong were sitting at a table. Ferrum and Quartzon were eating their meals on the floor.
"Some help?" Garchomp asked as she tried to tear open the packet.
Johnny Mac looked at the soy sauce packet and it started to levitate. Suddenly, the top of the packet tore free and it emptied its contents onto a small dipping bowl.
"Thanks!" Garchomp replied, skewering a rice ball and dipping it into the soy sauce. She had to admit, the rice balls were not as good as the one that her trainer made but they were decent.
"No problem," Johnny Mac replied. He then pointed to a trash can in the corner of the room and the empty packet shot across the room into the trash can – much to the surprise of another patron who narrowly avoided getting struck by a speeding condiment packet.
"You're a psychic?" Quartzon asked. Since they were at the edge of Lugia's translation field, her speech was understandable to him.
"Yeah," Johnny Mac replied. He casually levitated a chopstick to demonstrate.
"I know that psychic humans exist," Ferrum said. He then saw a silver haired woman levitating three trays filled with food over to a table where her family was sitting and her two children telekinetically grabbing ketchup packets. "But I have never seen a place where psychic powers are used so openly and without prejudice."
"Shove it, Ferrum," Wukong replied. "You know damn well that Hoenn is very tolerant in general. Not to mention you've met a psychic Officer Jenny in this city!"
"I wonder what Reshiram and Zekrom are doing?" Johnny Mac asked as he sipped his cup of coffee. He grimaced as he tasted the coffee and discreetly poured the cup into the potted plant next to him.
The door to the café opened and Reshiram and Zekrom walked in. Zekrom was carrying a keg under each arm and Reshiram was wearing a loincloth.
"Ah Zek and Reshi, what have you been up to?" Johnny Mac asked.
"Buying some beer and Reshiram here was outraging public decency," Zekrom replied, sticking the kegs into her messenger bag.
Ferrum let out a fake cough that sounded a lot like "Feather-cock!" This earned him a glare from Wukong.
"Since when did you learn Isshuese?" Wukong asked.
"Never," Ferrum replied. He then turned to the two new arrivals. "Since when did you learn English?"
"That explains the loincloth," Garchomp muttered, finishing up her rice balls. She then did a double take as she realized she could understand Zekrom. "Wait! Since when did I understand Isshuese!"
"I can explain," Zekrom said. She had a noticeable accent but she was otherwise understandable "We took a short course in speaking English. It was offered right here in Lileycove City."
Reshiram whispered something to her. "Oh, sorry. Lilycove, my error," Zekrom said with a chuckle.
Johnny Mac returned from the bathroom. "Well, if my timing is right, Lugia and the others should be done with the ships right about now," he said.
A portal appeared in front of Cynthia, who was drinking yet another bottle of water. James was snoozing on a nearby bench. Palkia stepped through the portal just as Lugia landed next to him. The portal blinked out of existence.
"So what happened?" Cynthia asked.
"The Kumo class battleship, HNS Craydaunt is out of service," Palkia said. He then looked at his guidebook. "Ugh, and the Kumo class battleships were regarded as some of the finest ships in the Hoenn Navy. In any case, I did meet the captain, a certain Katie S. Rowling. Too bad she's retired and the Craydaunt is a museum ship now. But I digress."
Lugia went over to James and prodded him until he woke up. James then took a seat next to Cynthia.
"Anyway," Palkia continued. "I managed to 'recruit' the Mauville class destroyer HNS Gardvior. And it's a special ship."
"What's so special about it?" James asked with a yawn.
Lugia took the guidebook from Palkia and flipped to the section about the Gardvior. "The Gardvior is a destroyer specially modified for Legendary escorts – you know if we're meeting foreign dignitaries or something or for special occasions."
"That doesn't mean anything."
"Not according to tradition. As we are considered divinities, Captain Drake On will take orders from us but only if we are on the ship. Conversely, if he feels the order is deleterious to himself, the ship, ourselves or an ally, he can refuse. In fact, he is supposed to refuse an order like that. Not to mention his right hand man, Ensign Daniel Ernston also keeps an eye on things too."
Lugia shuddered as he recalled the last time he was on the Gardvior. Manaphy, Suicune, Shaymin, Latios, Latias and himself were onboard the ship and headed to the Temple of the Sea for a ceremony and festival. Shaymin had gotten drunk and issued an order to shell Altomare. It took Latios, Latias, Lugia and some sailors to subdue Shaymin and lock her in a spare room until she sobered up. Even though he enjoyed the food served on the ship and his room was luxurious, he had to admit that the best part was the spectacle. The Legendary Birds, jet fighters from the Hoenn Air Force and Sinnoh Air Defense Force all performed flybys, leaving trails of multicolored smoke behind them. Below them was the Gardvior, flanked by two giant red Gyarados that Kyogre had recruited. Several additional water pokémon guarded the lavishly decorated ships carrying the human worshippers.
Lugia's journey to the past was interrupted by Palkia grabbing and shaking him. "Lugia! Now's not the time to go digging in the past," Palkia said.
Lugia shook his head. "Oh, right, sorry. Erm, where was I?"
Palkia took the guidebook from Lugia. "You're supposed to tell us about the ships you recruited!" he snapped.
"What ships?"
"You said you'd check the Kanto ships!"
"I did! And all of them wanted money!" Lugia said. "And the Silph Co. Navy's got the best ships," he added with a sigh.
Palkia held up his hand. "Wait. Wait. Silph Co. Navy? As in the Silph Co. that is more known for pokémon products!" he asked.
"Know any other Silph Co.?" Lugia replied.
"Never heard of a company owning their own military force."
"Believe me, Silph Co. is rich enough to do that. In any case, I engaged in some haggling with Captain Ryan Takeshiof the Mijizel class attack submarineSCNV Draconite. He'll help us for twenty five million poké."
Palkia's jaw dropped. He was indignant that Captain Takeshi essentially put a price on their lives. "Where are we going to get that kind of money!" he demanded.
"Nowhere," Lugia replied. "Unless we hit up Johnny Mac or Cynthia but that seems kind of undignified."
"And what about the other ship?" Palkia asked bitterly.
"Oh, you mean the Koga class missile cruiser, SCNV Saedra? Yeah, that's even more out of our budget. Captain Tara Willow wants seventy million poké for her services."
Palkia swore.
"Hey, at least you got an aircraft carrier and a destroyer on your side," James said.
"Well, let's meet up with Johnny Mac and the others," Cynthia said, getting up and heading to the exit.
Lugia, Palkia and James followed her.
Johnny Mac, Reshiram, Zekrom, Garchomp and James's pokémon were outside the café and waiting for the others to arrive.
"Looks like your calculations are off," Ferrum said sarcastically.
"Shut up," Johnny Mac replied. He was sipping some soda while Zekrom was drinking beer straight from the keg.
"Hey guys! We're here!" Palkia called. He was standing just outside the gate to Pier 21. Several people pushed past him in their haste to get to the navy ships. He picked up his bag, unlocked and mounted his hover skiff.
"So what happened?"
"We've got an aircraft carrier and a specialized destroyer on our side," Lugia said. He grabbed his own bag while James and Cynthia also grabbed their luggage.
"Nice!"
"Not so fast!" Palkia said. "They're for the Legendaries only! But we may be able to make some arrangements."
"Sounds good," James said.
"So what do you want to do?" Lugia asked.
Garchomp noticed a large poster advertising a technology expo by Zekurom Industries. She smirked as she recalled seeing a television advertisement for their 2021 series costumes. "How about we check out the expo?" she suggested, pointing to the poster.
Cynthia immediately figured out what Garchomp was planning and nodded. "Sure, it's not like we've got any leads to go on and besides, we just escaped a siege. We could use a break," she replied.
"I can warp us to the expo center," Palkia said.
"Please do."
Palkia nodded and started glowing pink. He used his fingers to draw a door in the air next to James. It then started to grow until it was over ten feet tall. Like a television screen, it blinked to life with a live image of the expo center.
"All right, let's head through," Palkia said. He then mounted his skiff and rode it through the portal and vanished.
A few seconds later, he stuck his head through the portal. "All clear," he said.
As soon as Palkia's head was out of the portal, the others filed through.
When Johnny Mac filed through, the portal collapsed in on itself.
Most of the inhabitants paid no heed to the portal as they were used to seeing Palkia travel in such a manner but his portal had attracted quite a large crowd of tourists. No one noticed an oddly metallic Ninjask flitting overhead.
Deserted Island – a few miles northeast off Lilycove City
Meanwhile, deep inside a bunker on a deserted island a few miles northeast of Lilycove City, several men dressed in grey and white jumpsuits were sitting inside some sort of control room. Various indicator lights blinked on the consoles as technicians kept tabs on the bewildering influx of information.
A large screen in the front wall of the room lit up and showed a video of Palkia and his crew walking through a portal which then blinked out of existence.
A gold haired man stood at the room's entrance, opposite the screen. He smirked. "You may have escaped the first time back in Sinnoh but this time, you won't be so lucky!" he said coldly.